A house clearance in Colwyn Bay usually starts with a phone call from somebody who is not in Colwyn Bay. This is the Clwyd coast to anyone who remembers the county. That is the pattern along this stretch of coast. The property sits on LL29, or over the headland on LL28 at Rhos-on-Sea, and the person holding the key is a long drive away with a few days booked off work. Abacus has been clearing houses since 2007. What follows is one of our own jobs, told properly, because one real day tells you more about house clearance than any list of promises.
A verminous house clearance, and what came out of it
It came in by email in the summer of 2023, and it was not a straightforward one. A two-bedroom terrace, shut up for a long stretch, booked to start on a Wednesday at the beginning of August. The person arranging it was not living at the property and had a relative copied into every message, which is ordinary — most clearances are organised by somebody at a distance. The description they sent through was better than most we get: "The house is a 2 bed room terrace, 2 rooms downstairs, 1 bathroom, maybe a loft with access, garden at rear with 2 sheds. Rear access from an alley."
That "maybe" about the loft is the honest bit, and we would far rather have it than a confident guess. A loft nobody has looked into is a normal way for a clearance to gain half a day, and we would sooner know in advance that it might be there.
They were straight with us about the state of the place as well: "It is in a verminious state with decayed food waste, general litter, old clothes, towels bedding etc." Decayed food waste is the line that changes the shape of a day. It means proper kit — masks, gloves, overalls — doors and windows open from the moment we arrive, and working room by room from the door inwards rather than diving at the worst of it. The team does not comment and does not pull faces. Houses that have filled up over years are a normal week's work for us rather than an exception.
Two loads went out, the second following the first the same day. A mattress. A television or monitor, which goes down its own electrical route rather than in with general waste. Upholstered furniture falling under the POP rules. A fridge freezer and a smaller one besides — the customer had warned us there might be a fridge and a cooker in the kitchen to come out, and they were right. Paint tins. Then a clean through the house once the rooms were empty, which is often the thing that makes a property look sellable rather than merely emptied.
The part of that job that took longest was not the lifting. It was the list of what had to be found and kept back. Printed matter of every kind — letters, will forms, notifications, bills. "All and any handwritten letters, cards, notes, diaries, any files or folders, photographs, albums." Books that had not decayed. Clothing and shoes still in packaging or looking new. And then this, which is the instruction we quote to new starters: "Keys, Watches, jewellery or money left in containers on chests of drawers, cupboards, underneath cushions, in suit pockets or in or behind drawers." A Roberts radio, specifically.
Nothing found in a house is ever ours. Every drawer and every jacket pocket gets checked before anything is loaded, because paperwork and small valuables turn up in the strangest places in a house like that one. Anything that looks like it matters is bagged, listed and set aside for whoever instructed us, and the office rings to say so before anything else moves.
One more line from that first email, and it is the one a team leader reads twice: "There is electricity and water supply to property but unused for some time." A supply on the meter and a supply that actually works are two different things in a house nobody has lived in. So we take our own lighting, we do not count on a tap running, and we ask about both on the phone rather than finding out at nine in the morning with a van outside.
What cannot go in the van on a house clearance
Six settees and armchairs in one house will slow a day more than the volume suggests, and the reason is foam. Upholstered furniture carries POP items — Persistent Organic Pollutants, the flame-retardant chemicals sitting in the padding and covers of nearly all soft furniture. Those pieces cannot travel mixed in with wardrobes and boxes and go to the same place at the end. They are kept apart on the van and handed over to a facility set up to burn them under permit. It is not an upsell; it is what the rules have said since the beginning of 2023. It is why a house full of soft furniture is a longer job than a house full of pine.
Paint is the other thing people always ask about. Half-used tins in a shed, aerosols, a camping gas cylinder behind the lawnmower, a drum of creosote nobody has opened since the eighties. None of it can go in an ordinary mixed load, because a general waste transfer station is not permitted to take it. We can still take it away, but it is booked in separately, which is why we ask on the phone rather than discovering it on the day.
Fixed fittings we leave. If a curtain track is screwed through into the wall, taking it down means making good afterwards, and we are not going to risk damage to a property that is about to be sold. Tell us in advance if something fixed has to come out and we will say honestly whether it is a job for us or for a joiner. Where the owner is not standing there, photographs of every finished room go over by email the same afternoon — that is standard, not something you have to ask for.
Where we work around here
Colwyn Bay sits on LL29, with Rhos-on-Sea next door on LL28 and Old Colwyn climbing the hill behind the promenade. We take bookings across the whole of Conwy county. Llandudno and Llandudno Junction, the walled town of Conwy itself, Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan along the coast road, Abergele and the Towyn side eastwards, and up the valley to Llanrwst, Trefriw, Betws-y-Coed and Dolwyddelan.
A fair number of house clearance Colwyn Bay bookings come with a second address a few miles off, so it is worth naming the neighbours we work most often. Over the Little Orme there is house clearance in Llandudno; eastwards along the coast, house clearance in Rhyl and, smaller and quieter, house clearance in Prestatyn; westwards past Conwy, house clearance in Bangor. Each has a page of its own if that is the one you actually wanted.
Getting to any of it is straightforward. The A55 runs the length of the coast and the vans come off it at whichever junction is nearest. The North Wales Coast Line puts Colwyn Bay station between Chester and Holyhead, with Llandudno Junction the next stop westward. Waste from the district falls under Conwy County Borough Council, whose household recycling centre at Mochdre most people round here know already. Though a full house is a good deal more than a car boot's worth, which is generally the point at which somebody phones us.
Access varies enormously in a few hundred yards. The Victorian terraces set back from the seafront often have no off-street parking at all and a long carry to the pavement. The bungalows spreading up towards Bryn-y-Maen are easier for the van but sit on slopes that make a fridge-freezer an interesting proposition. The valley properties inland can be a single-track lane and a farm gate. None of it is a problem if we know in advance, so tell us on the phone what the approach looks like. Where a Luton can stand, whether there are steps, whether there is power and water.
The kinds of house clearance we do in Colwyn Bay
Probate house clearance in Colwyn Bay
Most of our house clearance Colwyn Bay work is probate work, and most of it is instructed from somewhere else entirely. We correspond with the solicitor, the attorney or the executor direct, so nobody has to act as a go-between, and we can collect a key from an agent or a neighbour if nobody can be there. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, so no relative is left holding the bill on everyone else's behalf, and payment can come out of the estate. There is no deposit — the invoice follows the work, once the house is empty and the paperwork has gone over. Room photographs go over the same day. If you want the detail of how we handle probate house clearance, that page has it.
Hoarder house clearance and verminous properties
A hoarder house clearance is a different day's work: more sorting, more protective kit, and a slower pace through each room because everything gets looked at before it is lifted. Decayed food waste, animal mess and general decay put a property into the verminous category, and it needs to be booked in as that from the start. There is more on hoarder house clearance on its own page.
End of tenancy and flat clearance in LL28 and LL29
Landlords and managing agents ring us between tenancies, usually with a fixed date and a check-out looming. Flats above the shops on the main road are a carry down a staircase rather than a lift job, and that is worth saying on the phone. Carpets and underlay come up if you want them up.
Garage and loft clearance in Colwyn Bay
Plenty of jobs here are not a whole house at all. A garage and loft clearance on its own is an ordinary booking for us. A garage nobody has parked a car in since the nineties, a loft with a hatch and no ladder under it, two sheds in a back garden. Tell us whether the loft is boarded and whether the garage door still lifts, because a garage and loft clearance turns on those two answers more than on the volume. Single items and part loads we handle as house rubbish removal rather than as a full clearance.
Where the contents actually end up
Furniture, tools, crockery and clothing with plenty of use left in them are offered to reuse projects and charity outlets before anything else is considered. It keeps weight off the disposal ticket and it is the right end for a decent wardrobe. Metals, electricals and green waste are split at the yard. Whatever is genuinely finished goes to a permitted transfer station, and the Waste Transfer Note is raised when the load is tipped; we send our copy on with the rest of the paperwork.
Abacus House Clearance is fully insured and registered as an upper-tier waste carrier under licence CBDU419679. That number is worth checking on anyone you let take rubbish away from a house in Conwy — fly-tipped waste traced back to your address is your problem, not the man with the van's.
Common questions about house clearance in Colwyn Bay
How long does a house clearance in Colwyn Bay take? Most properties are cleared in a day. A house with a full loft, a garage and outbuildings, or one in a verminous state, can run to two days or three. We will tell you honestly which it is before you book, not on the morning.
Do we have to be there on the day? No. We can pick up a key from an agent, a solicitor or a neighbour, clear the property and email you photographs of every room once it is empty. Most of the people who book us for a Colwyn Bay clearance are not in Colwyn Bay at the time.
What will it cost? We do not publish figures, because a house clearance is priced on what is actually in the house. Ring 0800 046 5555 or send photographs through the form on this page and you will get a free, no-obligation quote once we know the room count, the loft, the outbuildings and the general density of stuff.
Can you deal with our solicitor? Yes. On probate work we deal with the solicitor, the attorney or the executor direct, whichever is easier, and we are used to working to their timetable rather than the other way round.
Who gets the invoice on a probate house clearance in Colwyn Bay? The solicitor, the executor or the estate direct, whichever is easiest — we invoice them rather than putting a relative in the middle of it. Payment can come out of the estate. There is no deposit, and the invoice comes after the work, not before it.
Will you take carpets, curtains and white goods? Carpets and underlay come up if you ask. Loose curtains go; a track screwed into the wall stays. Fridges, freezers, televisions, monitors and upholstery all leave the house with us but travel and are processed separately, under the rules that cover them.
Do you cover Rhos-on-Sea and Old Colwyn? Yes — LL28 and LL29 are the home patch, and we work the rest of Conwy county from the same run.
Talking to us
Ring 0800 046 5555 or use the form on this page with the address, the size of the property, what is in the loft and the garage if you know, and when you would like it done. We will tell you honestly whether it is one day or three, and whether anything in the house needs booking in separately. On probate house clearance in Colwyn Bay we are happy to deal with the solicitor or the executor directly, whichever is easier, and to send photographs of every room once the house is empty.
